No Excuses For Our Batting Display: Aaron Finch After Australia Bottle A Match-Winning Position In The 1st T20I

Australian white-ball captain and swashbuckling opener, Aaron Finch, admitted that his team somewhat panicked and lacked the ‘batting smarts’ during their run-chase of 146 in the first T20I against the West Indies.

Chasing 146 in 20 overs, Australia looked well set to take a 1-0 lead in the 5-match series before they suffered a horrific collapse.

Despite having scored 4/108 after 10.2 overs and needing just 38 runs to win in 58 deliveries, Australia ended up losing the game by 18 runs as they lost their last six wickets for 21 runs in just 5.5 overs.

A visibly upset Aaron Finch said that the batting display of his team was inexcusable and that his batters need to show a lot more ‘batting smarts’ in crunch situations.

“We just needed somebody to take it upon themselves and get right through to the end. After the position that [Marsh] and Wade got us into, just a bit of game smarts would have got us over the line there but sort of panicked a little bit. We’ve been working on trying to be a little more aggressive in the middle overs but maybe just need to rein it in today and have some more smarts. I thought the wicket played a little better batting second. There’s no excuses for our batting display there.” said Aaron Finch as quoted by ESPNcricinfo’.

 

‘First game as captain, wasn’t expecting this’- Nicholas Pooran after leading the West Indies to victory against Aaron Finch’s Australia

Meanwhile, West Indian skipper Nicholas Pooran was chuffed to bits after having led his team to a miraculous victory in his maiden game as captain.

Pooran, who was leading the team in the absence of the injured Kieron Pollard, revealed that he had asked his players to bring some energy on the field after they had managed a mere 6/145 in 20 overs.

Pooran was full of praise for his bowlers, especially Hayden Walsh and Obed McCoy, who was adjudged the ‘Player of the Match’ for his figures of 4/26 in 4 overs.

“What a game! First game as captain, wasn’t expecting this. We asked the guys for energy and that’s what they brought. I can’t give the bowlers enough credit. They came out firing the Australians and we knew we needed wickets to win the game. We asked Hayden to keep attacking those stumps, keep asking questions, and Obed McCoy came and won the game for us.” said Nicholas Pooran.

The second T20I between these two sides will take place on Sunday, July 11.

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